The Ultimate Rescue

Chapter III

MIA

Music: Try to Star from Gradius III Arcade

Yesterday at lunch, our group decided that it would be a good idea to go out and do something together over the weekend. Our selected activity was mini-golf.

My mom drops Mackenzie and I off at Sam's house at 1:47 PM. Sam's house is really just our rendezvous point; we're using Sam's hovercraft to fly to the golf course. Everybody else except for Luke is already present.

As Mackenzie and I walk towards the rest of the group, both of us are immediately examined by Sam, specifically for our attire. I'm wearing a bright green t-shirt and jean-shorts, and Mackenzie has on a purple polo short-sleeved shirt and athletic shorts.

"Mackenzie, are you really thinking about going mini-golfing in those shorts?" Sam asks. "Do you want guys to constantly be staring at you?"

"Sir, how would you like a knife in your throat?" I growl.

Mackenzie places a hand on my shoulder and tells me, "Relax, Mia. Remember that I don't care about what people say to or about me."

"Well, I do," I reply, brushing her hand away and glaring at Sam. Sam shakes his head and walks away from us.

"Where the hell is Luke?" Avery asks, looking around for any signs of him. "We're supposed to be leaving at 2."

"How typical of him to show up so much later than the rest of us," Skylar mutters.

"He's been acting so strange recently... has anybody else noticed that?" Shanna asks. Everybody else nods in reply.

"Maybe we should go check on him?" Sean suggests.

So we fly over to Luke's house. Sam flies us beside a few of the house's windows to see what's going on inside. "Doesn't look like anybody's home," he observes after checking a few of them. All of the lights are off, and there's nobody present in any of the rooms. We then walk up to the front door, and Heath rings the doorbell. Nobody shows up. Heath grabs on the doorknob and pulls it. Interestingly, the door's unlocked.

"Guys, let's not do this. If he's not home, maybe we should just leave without him," Elle says.

"Nope. Not gonna happen," Sam replies as our group begins to walk inside.

"This is technically an invasion of privacy, y'know," I mutter.

Music: Cave Dungeon from Super Mario 64

Our first stop is Luke's room. As we enter, we can spot Luke hanging up a picture on his wall. All of us are aware of the fact that that picture conceals a keypad to open up a secret room, so the fact that he seems to be coming from that room is enough to tell us that he's up to something. Luke mutters something incoherent to himself, and right before he turns around, Avery says, "Taking your sweet time, aren't ya?"

Startled, Luke jumps around and gasps when he sees us. "Jesus, guys. You scared the shit out of me," he mutters. "Look, I'm sorry about being late. I was working on something in there last night, and I fell asleep, and-"

It's obvious to the rest of us that he's trying to cover his tracks, so Skylar calls his bluff. "Enough with the games, Luke. We know you're hiding something from us." Most of us have our arms crossed or our hands on our hips, and we all have stern, serious looks on our faces. We're not the kind of friends who keep secrets from each other, and whatever Luke is keeping from us is something really big.

Luke clearly doesn't expect this response, so he stands there with his mouth open, unable to say anything, for a couple of seconds. Then he sighs, shakes his head, and says, "Alright, fine. But it's too complicated for you to understand."